The restaurant’s manager cleared out the smoking section to offer the mouthy Macon, Ga., native and his entourage a refuge from the firestorm since his arrival in New York.

Rocker devoured his steak, puffed on a cigar and canoodled with his girlfriend. He showed restraint when he drained a vodka tonic and refused an offer of another drink.

But he couldn’t resist poking fun at New Yorkers.

He told his dinner companions that he’d changed his answering machine greeting from a cordial Southern-tinged, “This is John, leave a message,” to a Big Apple accented, “Yo, dis is John,” after he received some “obnoxious” calls.

Meanwhile, New Yorkers who love to hate Rocker lamented his no-show during the Mets blowout.

“We were all juiced up to see him in the game so we could boo the hell out of him,” said Peter Ufret, 52, a mechanic from New Windsor, N.Y., who sported a T-shirt with a picture of Rocker tied to subway tracks.

Rocker’s return to Shea for the first time since he maligned 7 train straphangers in a magazine interview has boosted ticket sales for the four-game Mets-Braves series.

But he’s only taken the mound once so far – on Thursday night, when he retired three batters in order to a deafening chorus of boos from the stands.

The reliever split open a callous on his pitching thumb during warm-up on Friday and spent yesterday’s game sitting in the bullpen.

Sister Mary Elizabeth from the Ozanam Nursing Home in Bayside, Queens, who came to Shea with three other nuns, said she didn’t mind Rocker’s absence.

“I’m sick of him already,” she said.

“God gave him the talent, but he didn’t give him much upstairs. What he said is horrible, but God can forgive him as long as he promises to keep his big mouth shut.”

Others weren’t so forgiving, and chants of “We Want Rocker” filled the stadium in the eighth inning.

“He’s a wimp,” said Steven Abramovitz, 35, a beverage distributor from Amityville, L.I. “I think he just doesn’t want to take the abuse. Big deal – he’s got a blister? He’s supposed to be a tough guy. He can be in the game.”